Table of Contents

Evaluation of Law Enforcement Training for Domestic Violence Cases in a Southwestern City in Texas, 1997-1999 (ICPSR 3400)

Principal Investigator(s):
Smithey, Martha, University of Texas at El Paso and Boise State University;
Green, Susanne E., University of Texas at El Paso and Boise State University;
Giacomazzi, Andrew L., University of Texas at El Paso and Boise State University

Summary:

This study was an outcome evaluation of the effects of the
Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project Training Model for Law
Enforcement Response on police officer attitudes toward domestic
violence. Data on the effectiveness of the training were collected by
means of an attitude survey of law enforcement officers (Part
1). Additionally, two experimental designs (Part 2) were implemented
to test the effects of the Duluth model training on (1) time spent by
police officers at the scene of a domestic violence incident, and (2)
the number of convictions. Variables for Part 1 include the assigned
research group and respondents' level of agreement with various
statements, such as: alcohol is the primary cause of family violence,
men are more likely than women to be aggressive, only mentally ill
people batter their families, mandatory arrest of offenders is the
best way to reduce repeat episodes of violence, family violence is a
private matter, law enforcement policies are ineffective for
preventing family violence, children of single-parent, female-headed
families are abused more than children of dual-parent households, and
prosecution of an offender is unlikely regardless of how well a victim
cooperates. Index scores calculated from groupings of various
variables are included as well as whether the respondent found
training interesting, relevant, well-organized, and
useful. Demographic variables for each respondent include race,
gender, age, and assignment and position in the police department.
Variables for Part 2 include whether the domestic violence case
occurred before or after training, to which test group the case
belongs, the amount of time in minutes spent on the domestic violence
scene, and whether the case resulted in a conviction.

This study was an outcome evaluation of the effects of the
Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project Training Model for Law
Enforcement Response on police officer attitudes toward domestic
violence. Data on the effectiveness of the training were collected by
means of an attitude survey of law enforcement officers (Part
1). Additionally, two experimental designs (Part 2) were implemented
to test the effects of the Duluth model training on (1) time spent by
police officers at the scene of a domestic violence incident, and (2)
the number of convictions. Variables for Part 1 include the assigned
research group and respondents' level of agreement with various
statements, such as: alcohol is the primary cause of family violence,
men are more likely than women to be aggressive, only mentally ill
people batter their families, mandatory arrest of offenders is the
best way to reduce repeat episodes of violence, family violence is a
private matter, law enforcement policies are ineffective for
preventing family violence, children of single-parent, female-headed
families are abused more than children of dual-parent households, and
prosecution of an offender is unlikely regardless of how well a victim
cooperates. Index scores calculated from groupings of various
variables are included as well as whether the respondent found
training interesting, relevant, well-organized, and
useful. Demographic variables for each respondent include race,
gender, age, and assignment and position in the police department.
Variables for Part 2 include whether the domestic violence case
occurred before or after training, to which test group the case
belongs, the amount of time in minutes spent on the domestic violence
scene, and whether the case resulted in a conviction.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Study Description

Citation

Smithey, Martha, Susanne E. Green, and Andrew L. Giacomazzi. Evaluation of Law Enforcement Training for Domestic Violence Cases in a Southwestern City in Texas, 1997-1999. ICPSR03400-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2002. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03400.v1

Unit of Observation:
Part 1: Law enforcement officers. Part 2: Domestic
violence cases.

Universe:
Part 1: Law enforcement officers from selected command
centers who had been administered the Duluth Domestic Abuse
Intervention Project Training Model for Law Enforcement Response
(experimental group) and those who had not received the training
(control group). Part 2: Domestic violence cases handled by police
officers who had completed the Duluth model training.

The data available in this collection are part of
a broader evaluation project. Other components of the evaluation that
are not available through this data collection include the focus group
interviews, archival data in the form of meeting notes, and data used
to determine the effects of the Duluth model on the acceptance of a
case for prosecution. Users are strongly encouraged to obtain the
Final Report for this project in order to understand the entire
process evaluation.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
With funding from the Community Oriented Policing
Service (COPS), the police department of a large southwestern city in
Texas established the Domestic Violence Prevention Commission in 1996
to develop an effective approach to reduce family violence in the
city. Representatives of the Commission reflected a public and
private, multi-level collaborative partnership and included members
of the police department, the District Attorney's office, the County
Attorney's office, the City Attorney's office, probation and parole
units, the military, the school district, the Council of Judges,
state, county, and municipal legal assistance organizations, Juvenile
Probation, the Battered Women's Shelter, the Transitional Living
Center, the clergy, and other volunteer services dealing with the
problems of family violence. One goal of the Commission was to improve
police response to domestic violence incidents. To this end, the
Commission implemented the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
Training Model for Law Enforcement Response. The Duluth model had five
primary foci: (1) the changing role of law enforcement in domestic
violence cases, (2) safety and interviewing techniques, (3) the
fundamentals of a domestic violence investigation, (4) documentation
of evidence and report writing, and (5) special issues in
investigating domestic violence cases. This study was an outcome
evaluation of the effects of police officer training on police officer
attitudes toward domestic violence (Part 1). In addition to testing
the effects of the Duluth Model training on police officer attitudes,
two other experimental designs (Part 2) were implemented to test the
effects of the Duluth Model training on (1) time spent by police
officers at the scene of a domestic violence incident, and (2) number
of convictions.

Study Design:
For Part 1, an experiment was designed to measure
the effects of the Duluth model training on police officers' attitudes
toward domestic violence intervention. Data on the effectiveness of
the training were collected by means of an attitude survey of law
enforcement officers. The Solomon four-group design was implemented to
isolate and estimate the interaction effect that can occur when the
subject deduces the desired results from a combination of the pre-test
and test stimulus. The test stimulus was the Duluth model
training. This design required four groups, two of which received the
training (the experimental groups) and two of which did not (the
control groups). The subjects comprising the experimental groups were
police officers stationed at a regional command center. Of the two
groups receiving the test stimulus, one group completed both a
pre-test and post-test. The other completed only the post-test. The
subjects for the control groups were selected from the four command
stations that did not receive training. Of those officers who agreed
to participate, every other officer completed the pre-test
questionnaire. Forty-eight hours later (when there was a shift
change), the post-test was administered to all the officers. The
pre-test/post-test measuring instrument was a questionnaire consisting
of a series of items designed to assess attitudes toward gender roles,
police intervention in domestic violence, police policy surrounding
domestic violence, prosecution, the training itself, and belief in
inaccurate or simplistic causes of domestic violence. For Part 2, two
additional experiments utilizing a classical experimental design were
implemented to test the effects of the Duluth model training on (1)
time police officers spent at the scene of a domestic violence
incident, and (2) the number of convictions. Two computer systems were
used to gather information: the Criminal Justice Information System
(CJIS) and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD). Family violence cases for
September 1998 through September 1999 were gathered from two sources
at the District Attorney's (DA) office. Case numbers for which arrests
had been made at the scene were collected from the District Attorney
Information Management System (DIMS) department files. Non-arrest case
numbers were gathered from the screening log of the family violence
attorney in charge of overseeing the prosecution of family violence
cases. Once the unique case number assigned by the local police
department was identified, data were collected to be used in the
experimental designs. The first experimental design was used to
measure the effects of domestic violence response training and the
amount of time spent at the scene of the domestic violence
episode. For domestic violence offenses occurring from September 1998
through September 1999, time spent at the scene by law enforcement
officers was obtained from the police department's CAD system. For the
purposes of this study, time at the scene was assigned to the
principal or senior officer of record and was calculated as the
difference between the initial time of arrival at the scene and the
time when the police unit informed dispatch it was leaving the scene
of the domestic violence call. Therefore, "time at the scene" was
operationalized as the length of time in minutes that the officer
spent at the family violence scene and did not include transport of
the offender for booking. For "report only" cases in which the family
violence victim filed a complaint at a police substation, time at the
scene was operationalized as the time spent compiling the report for
the victim. The test stimulus was the Duluth training. Cases managed
by police officers who received training constituted the experimental
group. Cases managed by police officers who did not receive training
constituted the control group. The pre-test and post-test consisted of
the amount of time spent at the scene of the domestic violence
episode. The second experimental design measured the effects of the
Duluth training on the number of convictions. Disposition of family
violence cases was determined by locating the cases on the prosecuting
attorney's centralized computer system. The outcome of each case was
noted as either a dismissal or conviction. The pre-test and post-test
consisted of the number of cases resulting in convictions from both
the control and experimental groups.

Sample:
Part 1: Convenience sampling. Part 2: inap.

Data Source:

self-enumerated questionnaires and administrative
records

Description of Variables:
Variables for Part 1 include the assigned research
group and respondents' level of agreement with various statements,
such as: alcohol is the primary cause of family violence, men are more
likely than women to be aggressive, only mentally ill people batter
their families, mandatory arrest of offenders is the best way to
reduce repeat episodes of violence, family violence is a private
matter, law enforcement policies are ineffective for preventing family
violence, children of single-parent, female-headed families are abused
more than children of dual-parent households, and prosecution of an
offender is unlikely regardless of how well a victim cooperates. Index
scores calculated from groupings of various variables are included as
well as whether the respondent found training interesting, relevant,
well-organized, and useful. Demographic variables for each respondent
include race, gender, age, and assignment and position in the police
department. Variables for Part 2 include whether the domestic
violence case occurred before or after training, to which test group
the case belongs, the amount of time in minutes spent on the domestic
violence scene, and whether the case resulted in a conviction.

Response Rates:
Unknown.

Presence of Common Scales:
Likert scales were used in Part 1. There were no scales
used in Part 2.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Created online analysis version with question text.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 2002-06-27

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CQ3400.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

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